Hot Topic: Maintaining Diversity

School districts often face challenges in maintaining racial and economic diversity as area demographics change. Research supports that a diverse student population leads to enhanced student achievement and, consequently, increased graduation rates. Recognizing the benefits of a diverse school population, districts continue to explore strategies to diversify their schools. Listed below are some strategies that districts have utilized to maintain diversity in their schools.

Program Practices

Create Assessment Maps to Illustrate Transfer Trends and Formulate Policy
In order to make transfer patterns more apparent and easily understandable to a range of stakeholders, Portland Public Schools created transfer assessment maps.

Create Attractor Programs to Maintain Diversity in Your Choice Schools
To maintain a diverse student population in choice schools, Hillsborough County Public Schools incorporated attractor programs in the 2004–2005 school year. Attractor programs are add-on programs, offering thematic strands without taking away from the existing structure of the school.

Create Transfer Processes to Promote Integration
Since Chicago Public Schools is court-mandated to integrate its schools, the district has fostered magnet schools and Neighborhood Learning Clusters to meet this mandate.

Decide Which Indicators Are Important and Develop Assessment Tools
The Wake County Public School System has centralized its data collection efforts to monitor the achievement of choice program goals.

Factor in Special Needs for Recruiting Diverse Populations
Desert Sands Unified School District markets to a range of parents and students by factoring in language and social barriers when planning their marketing campaign.

Identify the Data That Matter
In creating and carrying out its vision for choice, the Wake County Public School System relies heavily on a wide range of data to inform decisionmaking.

Partner With Organizations That Serve Immigrant Communities
To foster ongoing dialogue with its diverse community, in the fall of 2006, Minneapolis Public Schools created an advisory team of representatives from organizations serving immigrant communities.

Provide Information in Multiple Languages Via an Automated Telephone Line
To provide non-English-speaking parents the same access to information as English-speaking parents receive, Minneapolis Public Schools created a telephone information line that provides choice and emergency recorded messages in Hmong, Somali, and Spanish.

Provide School Choice Information by Doing a “Walk the Neighborhood” Outreach Campaign
In an effort to increase public contact through networking, Minneapolis Public Schools expanded its neighborhood walking campaign, outreach previously conducted on a much smaller scale.

Offer Commuter Schools (aka Special Interest Schools) to Expand Interdistrict School Choices
In response to fluctuating neighborhood populations and to provide choice options to parents working in the downtown area, Miami-Dade County Public Schools opened several commuter schools.

Partner With a State-Level Interdistrict Choice Program
A variety of choice options, including magnet, community, and traditional schools are provided for families residing in Minneapolis through the interdistrict program "The Choice Is Yours."

Offer An Annual Conference Highlighting Best Practices On School Integration
Beginning in 2005, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) resumed the practice of offering an annual conference on integration. The two-day conference highlights best practices that target the integration issues of schools within the state.

Participate in Options That Promote Diversity in Your District
To diversify its public schools, Minnesota developed interdistrict programs in the Minneapolis metro area. Two interdistrict magnet schools were created as a result of parent feedback and the district’s desire to capitalize from partnerships with area resources.

Sample Materials

The Choice Is Yours
Through an interdistrict choice program called "The Choice Is Yours," Minneapolis families who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch also qualify for priority placement in certain identified Minneapolis Public Schools magnet programs.

West Metro Education Program
The West Metro Education Program is a voluntary consortium of 11 urban and suburban school districts in the Minneapolis metropolitan area that was formed to address integration issues.

Minneapolis Parent Information Centers
These centers collaborate with two other educational organizations to provide academic support to student who participate in "The Choice Is Yours" interdistrict program.

Demographics Growth and Diversity Report
Wake County Public School System leaders use local demographic data to evaluate the success of their program.

Interdistrict Downtown School
The Interdistrict Downtown School, a K-12 interdisciplinary program, emphasizes multicultural and experiential learning, and focuses on promoting best practices that benefit a diverse student population.

Fine Arts Interdisciplinary Resource School
The Fine Arts Interdisciplinary Resource School serves grades 4 – 8 in a uniquely designed site that includes sophisticated fine arts rehearsal and performance spaces, and a curriculum that integrates fine arts throughout all content areas.

End-of-Year Minority Transfer Application
This Chicago Public Schools application allows minority students to apply to schools with a student population of more than 40% Caucasian.

Socioeconomic Status Transfer Assessment Map
Assessment maps are used to illustrate disaggregated socioeconomic status data throughout the Portland Public Schools.

Northside School Expo
Minneapolis Public Schools encourages the participation of hard-to-reach families in choosing their children’s schools through activities such as the Northside School Expo. The expo is advertised on the district's website.

Integration Conference Agenda
The Minnesota Department of Education offers an annual conference addressing school integration.

Interdistrict Agreement
West Metro Education Program’s interdistrict agreement outlines student enrollment policies and procedures for the participating districts.

Promising Practices for Intra- and Interdistrict Integration Document
A Promising Practices for Intra- and Interdistrict Integration document was created to highlight quality integration activities in the state.

The Choice Is Yours Liaison Position Description
To facilitate a student’s transition from one school setting to another, member school districts of the West Metro Education Program each hire a liaison who is fluent in the community’s language and culture.

Tools

Marketing Plan for Delivering School Choice Information to Hard-to-reach Families
This tool addresses three essential aspects of developing an effective marketing plan: assessing hard-to-reach populations; researching potential marketing options; and creating a marketing plan. A list of resources is also included.

Envisioning and Planning Your Interdistrict Choice Program
Prior to developing an interdistrict choice program, it is critical to assess the need and available resources to support such a program in your district. This tool reviews some of the issues to consider in the process.

Web Sites

Black Alliance for Educational Options
BAEO is an organization that supports school choice and works to educate the African American community in particular about choice options for their children.

Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, Inc. (CHCF)
The organization was founded in 1982 by a group of Latino health and human service professionals to improve the quality of life for Latino children and families and their communities. Its mission is to help educators and health professionals communicate with Latino parents in culturally sensitive ways. The Committee develops and implements outreach programs for low-income families and children in youth development and education.

Educational Consequences of School Choice
Dr. Hill says that there is ample evidence that choice strongly benefits all children, including the disadvantaged. Choice promotes the candid and demanding relationships among teachers, parents, and students that are essential to effective schooling.

Equity Assistance Centers
There are ten regional Equity Assistance Centers funded by the U.S. Department of Education under Title IV of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. They provide assistance to public schools in the areas of race, gender, and national origin to promote equal educational opportunities.

Haberman Educational Foundation, Inc.
The Haberman Educational Foundation, Inc. promotes research-based models for identifying teachers and principals--particularly educators who serve students at risk and in poverty. The Foundation's "Star Online Administrator Questionnaire" and "Online Pre-Screener" identify candidates who are likely to succeed in alternative administrative certification programs.

Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options (CREO)
Founded in 2001, CREO is dedicated to improving educational outcomes for Hispanic children by empowering families through parental choice in education. Hispanic CREO has parent organizers on staff. In 2004, with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, it created Project CREO 2004 to reach out to Latino parents in five urban communities with a high concentration of Hispanics (Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio, Texas; Miami, Florida and Camden, New Jersey) for the express purpose of raising parents' awareness about NCLB's school choice and SES provisions.

Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) of the U.S. Department of Education
The Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) of the U.S. Department of Education provides grants to districts whose magnet program is implemented under a mandatory (e.g., court-ordered) or federally approved voluntary desegregation plan. The MSAP Web site provides details of the grants competition, including eligibility criteria, as well as abstracts of sample ptograms anda detailed "Frequently Asked Questions" section.